Microsoft intends to launch a mobile app store

Microsoft is planning to launch a mobile app store that will compete against the App Store and Play Store.

According to Microsoft’s Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft will take advantage of an upcoming EU law that will break up the monopoly held by the two major smartphone platform holders.

"We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play," Spencer told the...

21 March 2023 | Android

Microsoft sets out to woo regulators with ‘Open App Store Principles’

Microsoft is getting ahead of potential new laws governing app stores by announcing its Open App Store Principles.

Last week, Developer reported on Apple’s latest fight against such legislation after the company sent a letter to US lawmakers urging them to reject S. 2710—a bill that would force Apple to open its notorious “walled garden” and enable the sideloading of apps.

Microsoft has managed to avoid being the focus of high-profile antitrust investigations in...

10 February 2022 | App Stores

Stanford Law and GitHub launch initiative to protect open-source developers

Stanford Law and GitHub are partnering on an initiative to protect the legal rights of open-source developers.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from 1998 prohibits the circumvention of technological measures employed by, or on behalf of, copyright owners to protect access to their works.

Open-source developers regularly face takedown claims under Section 1201 but, rather than fight it, they often decide to avoid the cost and risk by just removing the...

27 July 2021 | Git